Josh Boone to Adapt Stephen King’s ‘The Talisman’

Sound the Stephen King adaptation alarm: Josh Boone is now attached to write an adaptation of King’s novel The Talisman. Boone has been attached to multiple King adaptations in the past, and now adds King’s 1984 fantasy novel co-authored with Peter Straub to the list. The Talisman movie details await you below!

A Long Road to the Screen…

Co-written with Peter Straub, The Talisman is less a horror story and more of a fantasy-adventure; one that draws on Mark Twain and features several references to King’s own Dark Tower series. The sprawling saga follows twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer, who sets off on a quest to find a crystal known as “The Talisman.” Jack hopes the Talisman will help save his cancer-ridden mother. Jack’s journey takes him to The Territories, a parallel universe that mirrors our own, which is basically part of King’s Dark Tower universe.

A film adaptation of The Talisman has been kicking around before the ink on the first edition was dry. Steven Spielberg snapped up the rights to the book and worked on first turning it into a film and then a miniseries. “Spielberg fell in love with the book before it was published and persuaded Universal to buy the film rights,” co-author Peter Straub said in 1996. “[Stephen King and I] went to the Amblin offices on the Universal lot for a long meeting during which it became clear that Spielberg had a great understanding of the story and would have made a wonderful film of the book. However, the project got shelved…[but] because they bought the book for a considerable sum, I still think they might do it in this way sometime in the future, and I think it would make a great mini-series. But we shall see.”

Eventually, frequent Spielberg collaborate Frank Marshall became involved. In 2008, Marshall said the project was once again being planned as a film: “It’s back to being a movie. It’s kind of on the backburner since we’re waiting to see how everything shakes out with the DreamWorks, Paramount, Amblin thing.”

The New Version

Now Variety reports that The Fault in Our Stars director Josh Boone has been brought on board to write a new film adaptation. This isn’t the first King adaptation Boone’s name has been associated with. The writer-director was originally going to adapt King’s apocalyptic The Stand into a feature film, but that film has been delayed. Boone also expressed interest in bringing King’s Frankenstein-inspired novel Revival to the big screen with Samuel L. Jackson as part of the cast, but that project has also fallen by the wayside.

Stephen King adaptations have experienced quite the boom lately, with the film adaptation of It becoming an unexpected blockbuster. Recently, Netflix debuted the critically acclaimed adaptation of King’s Gerald’s Game, and the have the King adaptation 1922 slated for this month. The Talisman isn’t exactly what I’d call one of King’s best novels, but it has enough material to make a potentially great fantasy film. There’s word on when The Talisman might hit theaters, or even who will helm the adaptation, but Variety hints that Boone may be brought on board to direct as well, with Frank Marshall producing.